I've got an 88 tristar 190 and I've tried about everything I can think of and I can't get the wake to shape up like I like it. I'm to the point where I just want to sell it and try a different hull.

I put a ballast system in with a fat seat in the back and up front I filled 4 4" tubes that are about 2 feet long with concrete. Also I filled a small storage container w/ concrete. (concrete about 200 pounds).

Anyway, like I said I can't get a shape I like. Seems inconsistent and I never quite know what I'm going to get. I ride at about 70 any shorter and it seems like I'm playing tug of war with the boat. Any longer and the wake is so wide you can't do any tricks.

Mostly I'm bugged cause I'm past the basics, I've been doing rolls/flips rolls to revert for years but on this boat I can't even land those. Feels like when I try them there is no wake.

I'm 29 so I thought maybe I'm just getting old and sucking, but I get behind other boats and I ride as good as ever. Any help is appreciated. Right now I'm hating this boat but I've read posts where people love it.

So.... More weight, weight position, different prop? Please help or this boat is gone.

I have a similar hull, and I use the Launch pad sofa and I have to put a ton of weight in the front to get a decent wake, I fill a sac full also have everyone sit up front as well. The problem with these hulls that I dont like is there is no ramp to the wake when weighted.

Here is how I weighted my old tristar, I loved the wake on it. On each side of the engine a full size fat sac pushed all the way to the back, I had them out of the cases so they filled really big. In between the two sacs I would run around 150-210 in sand on the floor. In th gunwals I had about 210 worth of lead stuffed all the way back till it wouldn't go any farther split up evenly on both sides. In the nose I only had about 170lbs pushed all the way forward. With this setup I never had any problems, the wake was always consistent. I rode at 75 feet of line plus the handle and speed was around 24.5mph.

Here are some pics of the wake. If you have any questions feel free to email me.

Are you sure that is a 190?Please read this as POSITIVE input. Your boat looks to be a TRISTAR 220 If your registration reads 22 feet it is a 220.I have NEVER seen a walkaround 190 before. Measure just to be sure. That boat is 22 feet not 19. Shorten the rope length to 60 or under. The wake will not be as wide.

Yes I'm sure its a 190 as my dad has the 220 so I've spent plenty of time on each. Even the wake on the 220 was better. So I guess the answer is more weight. I suppose I can go down and load up on a bunch of sand bags to weight it down. So right now I have 1200 in the rear, and 200 in the front, If I go and buy another 400 in sand I should be OK. Luckily here in Vegas the water is still nice and warm so there is time to test it out.

Next thing is a new prop. My boat is in storage so I can't remember, I e-mailed ACME but I can't remember what size the stock prop is. Anyone?

robandrus, You want the ACME 543 the specs are 13x11.5, .080 cup, 3 Blade Nibral, 1 bore, LH only. This is assuming you have the 1:1 transmission. I put the 543 on my old tristar 190 and it was an amazing prop. It blew away the 13x13 OJ 4 blade that was on it. The acme had a better hole shot, better cornering and pretty much the same top end. Let me know if you avhe any questions.

I've seen a TS190 in that config. I weighted mine w/ 550 in the back (on top of the flipped back seat) and 250 on the floor in front of the mtr + 4 blade OJ / powerslot trans. My bud was sticking rolls and scarecrows behind it no prob. He bitc%ed a little about the wake, but it worked. That is one clean looking 88. Good luck

Robandrus, Here is a link to a guy on this site that sells the props. Scroll through the props and the 543 is listed. He always get good reviews. His price is $310.00 which is about what I paid when I bought mine.

I usually launch at Lake Mead Harbor, then head past the water pumping station back to Las Vegas Bay, The two main harbors there are all dried up so you don't get much traffic other than fishermen and the wind doesn't get it much.

Ok so I've been talking to ACME trying to get a recommendation, however he needed info on RPM's and such so I took it out yesterday. Water was still nice here in Vegas but I couldn't get my wife to go with me. Mostly I just took my little girls out for a ride and did a little cliff jumping. This also gave me a great chance to move weight around and see what worked best.

The first thing I noticed was that with no one else in the boat it really leaned towards the drivers side. This causes the wake to wash over on drives side and to be really clean on the goofy side. I filled the ballast and then moved my concrete to the rear passenger side. It helped but I also feel like I just don't have enough weight to do the job.

I've read a few posts about lead so I wen't down to Discount tires and asked for theirs, they wanted like $50 for a 5lb bucket, he said it would be more than 5lbs, I didn't really do the math but that seemed like a lot. I tried some shooting ranges but they also wanted a lot. I'm about ready to try 1000lbs of sand bags hidden through out.

Mostly the wake still seemed small and definately flattens out at the top instead of a nice lip. Anybody want a boat? Cheap...

The reason you need extra weight on the port side is because of the way the prop rotates. I need extra on the driver side of my nautique. $50 for 5lbs is insane. You could go and buy lead shot for reloading shotgun shells for less than that. Sands bags are cheap try those. I can't believe you can't get a good wake out of that thing. Mine was great. It just takes a lot of weight. 2000lbs at least plus a couple of adults. Most of the weight towards the back.

I've spent the morning looking around at lowes, home depot etc. Most stores around here don't carry sand bags, Lowes had 50lb bags for $2.44 but they were in plastic sacks, not the poly ones. Thats asking for trouble. White Cap has tube sand in 60lb bags for $3.91 so 1020 lbs for $66.47. Long skinny tubes perfect for hiding under seats. They had acouple different options

do you know the cup of the 913 prop. I couldn't find any specs on it. I wouldn't go anything less than the 0.080 cup. I was very happy with the 543. It never had any problems even with 2000+lbs plus people. Basically the less the cup of the prop, the more it will slip. I know this because of my trial and error earlier this year with my nautique props.

The 913 has a .060 cup. I honestly haven't studied that much about it but the guys at ACME are supposed to know their stuff, at this point the prop conversation is still hypothetical, I'm still not feeling that much love for this boat, if the weight works and I can get the wake shaped properly we all know that with a few good rides the amount of money we will throw at a boat is enormous, so far at least it hasn't shown me much love back however.

I ended up getting about 20 bags for $.30 each, and I filled them with some type 2 gravel compound cause I couldn't find any sand and it was free. I filled 10 tonight and I'll go with another 10 tomorrow I don't have a scale but I'm guessing that it's heavier than sand and should get me up to the 1000 pounds I'm looking for.

Ok, mission accomplished....I hope. All 20 bags filled, weighing in well over a thousand pounds. I put most of them on the floor, two high along the back wall and as a base for the fat seat, two under the front seats and two by the drivers chair. These days it's difficult to find anyone to go with but I managed to talk a neighbor into going with me. He had never driven before and the perfect pass was not doing it's job again. On the few times he was able to hold the speed I launched much higher than I was ever able to behind this boat. Yes I'm excited for my wife to come back from Cali to drive for me and give it a real go.

I have to say however that there are some drawbacks to the sand, first of all I now need to add air to all my tires, boat is much heavier, like 50%, weight on my boat standard is only like 2400lbs, add 1500lbs in sand/concrete and I've got a great wake but its harder on the trailering. Also it was fish tailing at speeds over 50mph while driving there.

I'll definately need a new prop with that much extra weight, and that was with only a driver. The nice thing is, is that I have all the sand weight and I can still add 1000lbs in water in the fat seat.

The truth is I'm cautiously optimistic at this point, I wasn't really able to try any tricks with the driving, but at least the potential is there, which is good considering I was at openly dis-satisfied.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of the wake to share, must get a new digital camera soon.